Well Hello Dolly

Dolly gave us a little rainfall after all yesterday afternoon. Not as much as we'd like since the chance of rain for today has all but disappeared. With our highs in the 95-100 degree range, that little rain we got yesterday will be evaporated by tonight. The rain gauge in our back yard only shows a quarter of an inch of rain. But at least I don't have to water my yard one day this week. We have been in water restrictions all summer and can only water our yards two days a week on designated days only during designated times. Our days are Sunday and Thursday after 7:oo p.m. And it rained on our day which makes it even better.

I had a great swim this morning. I have been thinking about doing a full sprint triathlon at the end of September. Full sprint triathlons are 750m swim, 16.9K bike and 5K run. Just the swim alone scared me. 750 meters is .47 of a mile. Almost half a mile in open water with no lane ropes, no visibility, no transitions, no push-offs, no water breaks and no resting. Straight swimming for half a mile. That's 820 yards which means 32.8 links or 16.4 laps in the 25 yard pool in which I swim. Yikes! Then you get to ride 10.5 miles on a bike and run 3.1 miles.

But this morning, after doing my usual warm-up and drill set and the first 8 minutes of my main set, I decided I would see how long I could swim without stopping. And I was amazed at how long I swam, unfortunately I lost count of my laps. I seriously need an abacus. I got into a sweet pace that I think would be great for a race. Not too fast, but not too slow. I wasn't even exhausted when I stopped. I only stopped because I wondered how long I had been swimming since I lost count of the laps. So I decided to try it again and I did. I really felt like I could keep swimming at that pace forever. Now I think I could do a full sprint triathlon if I keep this training up. Just swim until I can't swim anymore.

I need to add cycling to my regular exercise and I'm hoping Roger will join me for that. I also need to start drinking more sport drinks to replace the electrolytes I am losing if I increase to this much exercise. I drink a lot of water because I need it but with that much exercise I will just flush out more sodium I'm already losing during exercise which isn't a good thing. You need a good balance of water and electrolytes in your blood, especially with lots of activity. Going to go add that to my grocery list now.

Waiting on Dolly

Well, Tropical Storm Dolly hit land yesterday afternoon on the coast of Texas around South Padre Island and is working it's way up the Rio Grande. It has made it to Laredo according to the news. I read it was a category 2 when it hit land and is the worst storm to hit that part of the Texas coast since the 1950s. They have been evacuating the coastal areas for a couple days. One report said an area north of Brownsville got 10 inches of rain. We, on the other hand, have received no rain so far. And when I say we, I mean our area of South Austin, our neighborhood, our street, our house. Other areas around us have received rain, but not us. Even Roger's work got a downpour yesterday afternoon and he assumed we also did here at home, but no. The chances of rain are higher today although the day is almost half way over and we haven't had any rain yet. The skies have been gray since yesterday afternoon. We are really hoping to get some rain from this tropical storm. For the rest of us in Central Texas, tropical storms and hurricanes are the only way we get any precipitation during the summer. And we need it bad.